I was introduced to programming in high school, and have enjoyed it ever since. My first exposure to programming was in the C language, where I learned the satisfaction of getting code right, and the frustration of bug fixing. Frustrating though it was, bug fixing was worth it in the end, when the programs I wrote were able to do what they were supposed to do, and in many cases, more. I often tinkered with my programs after I finished them, as I found myself with extra time. A simple drawing program was very versatile once you started playing with the code.
My current interest in software engineering is primarily focused on how I can automate or make things easier for myself. Ideally, I am trying to go into the field of data science after college, where the amount of software development will be variable. My hope is that by that time, I will have all the necessary skills needed to simplify any task, be it analysis, cleaning, or setting up preformatted documents. By learning software engineering, I hope to broaden my current skill set in the hopes that it will not only enhance my skill set, but also prepare me for developing quick programs to simplify work.
Going forward, I would like to both improve my ability to write programs quickly, and either have those programs function, or that I’ll able to fix them if they break. This, coupled with data set knowledge, could allow me to format data properly for analysis, clean data sets, or just find and extract values I’m interested in. Using more coding languages also helps me prepare for different syntax, allowing for better adaptability. This would help in the case where I am presented with a unique set of code/software that I have to use as part of a project. Beyond that, I just seek to improve my coding skill and practice problem solving.
I hope to apply the techniques I hone in this class to my future endeavors in data science. While it is not necessarily strongly coupled with software engineering, I know that developing these skills will help down the line when I need a quick program to simplify a job. I’m not super passionate about software engineering, but I look forward to using the skills I gain and the knowledge I learn to further my own interests.